arlinns

A raid, huh? Circe Azalea could handle a raid. Probably. Didn’t those usually involve having a full party, though? Was she going to have to find other adventurers to team up with? That sure did seem like a lot of work. Adventurers these days seemed to get… pretty clingy. At least, in her experience they did. Wait. What experience? What was she even thinking about? Circe shook her head. Focus, you ridiculous alchemist. Still… it sounded interesting to her. Heroes who had fought to protect the realm who had ended up falling, becoming corrupted… Hm. They were NPCs, in a manner, weren’t they? Circe couldn’t help but wonder if the same thing that had happened to her had happened to any of these heroes… could they, too, have gained a form of sentience? Had they become… something else? It was going to be impossible to say until she saw them for herself. Normally she wouldn’t be so fascinated by the idea of a raid. It was just another aspect of this MMO, and fighting wasn’t even Circe’s

Get to the next quest. It was simple, really. In writing, anyway. Go to Cloudshaven. To get there… she was going to have to trek through high level areas. It was… it was an interesting challenge, to say the least. Circe had been rather enjoying herself playing the game she had lived in. It was… different as a player. There was so much more variety. To be able to see this world as it was… to be able to enjoy it… she had never even imagined that she would be playing such a game and yet, there she was! Grinding for levels in jobs (it helped, of course, that she had already max-leveled Alchemy as part of her NPC coding - at least that didn’t go away when she gained sentience within Dream-Online), crafting new equipment for herself, exploring the world and finding all sorts of interesting treasures… To some, Dream-Online was the newest and most technologically advanced MMO. To Circe… this was her world. Her life. Her home, in many ways. Getting to experience it like this… it was an

Her shop was located in the market square of the first town in Dream-Online. It wasn’t difficult to find - in fact, far from it. The sign outside made it clear that this was the Alchemist’s shop and, really, even if there hadn’t been a sign it would have been more than obvious. The window sills of her shops were full to bursting with plant life, spilling over their allotted pots and containers. Through the windows, too, the shelves of worn books and scrolls were visible, as well as the shelves that held the more… well, interesting ingredients. Jars upon jars of things that were near unfathomable. Reagents and ingredients from the most high leveled areas of Dream-Online… the ones that the Alchemist herself kept a very close eye upon. Low level newbies had tried to steal them from her on more than one occasion, after all. Most days were the same. Most days she went through her routine in her shop. Work on crafting new potions for herself, jot down notes and recipes in her journal, be

He was clad in shiny heavy armour and held a fierce looking maul (really it just looked like a baseball bat with nails in it, but that was fierce, right?), his bag was full of potions, and all the sockets on his weapon and armour were filled with shining (er, well, they could have been shinier) jewels. He had ground out levels in his jobs through stupid and inane sidequests. Bitter was ready to journey out into the Dreamlands and see what, exactly, this stupid MMO had to offer him. He stomped bravely off into the next zone, chest puffed out and head held high. He was tough and ready for whatever this game threw at him. But as the load screen faded… he felt his stomach twisting into knots. This was a higher level zone than he had been in yet… what if the mobs here hit hard? What if his armour wasn’t good enough? He didn’t like that feeling at all. Maybe… maybe he could go grind some more sidequests for a while and get really overleveled… No! He looked cool, he was prepared… it was

His armour was complete. It wasn’t the scale armour that he had dreamed of… but it would do better than the starter armour he had been wearing. Bitter had even managed to craft it in a dark colour, with added spikes! The spikes were mostly stuck on with a bit of glue, but from a distance they sure did look cool. Maybe he’d look scary enough that the mobs would avoid him… he could hope, right? It turned out, however, that that wasn’t the extent of it. Just crafting his heavy armour and a maul wasn’t enough. You needed trinkets and enchanted jewels to embed in the sockets… and, you guessed it, they were being sold for exorbitant amounts on the marketplace. This stupid MMO had a stupid learning curve and it was frustrating! There was only one thing to do, as per usual. Make them himself. He didn’t love the idea of crafting jewels and jewelry - or of enchanting them himself - but… if he was going to be tough and impressive and beat off the monsters out there in the wilds while looking

There was… a secret side to Bitter. The real, true Bitter. Oh sure, he put on a tough, brash, rude act… but when there was an actual threat? Well, he much prefered to tuck tail and run. The foes out in the combat zones of Dream-Online… they were a lot tougher than he had thought they would be, even with the handful of potions he had been able to craft for himself. No matter how many potions you had, it wasn’t going to increase your chances of being able to one hit KO a stupid slime creature. “Who is selling this garbage?!” he yelled at the marketplace board, frustration seeping into his voice. Armour and weapons were even more outrageously priced than potions! Was he going to have to make this himself, too? What a rip off this game was turning out to be! Nothing but a big timesink! But he wasn’t going to quit and give up. Not when people would know he had done that. And that was why Bitter resigned himself to learning a new crafting job in this stupid, ridiculous MMO. What he wanted

Who was setting the prices in the marketplace for this stupid game? A healing potion for HOW much? Disgusting. He was getting beaten up out there by low level slimes and goblins (okay, so, maybe he wasn’t getting beaten up. Maybe he was running away when it was looking like he couldn’t just one hit KO his enemies) and he needed those potions! This stupid MMO was unfair to newbies. How was he going to get ahead like this? In all honesty, Bitter had tripped on the book. That was how he had found the worn copy of ALCHEMY FOR DUMMIES - it had nearly sent him flying. “Who the hell leaves a book out in the open?” he yelled, but his angry barking got no response from the NPCs around him. Continuing to mutter angrily, he picked up the book. He wasn’t much of a reader, but… Alchemy for Dummies? How weird that that would solve the exact problem he was having at that very moment. Aha, there was even a healing potion. And a… a cure for dysentery? Maybe? Was he going to get dysentery in this

This side quest had to be even stupider than the last one. Chasing Treats around the town for a crying baby of a Stygian was one thing. It was your regular fetch quest. But a fashion show? Dumb. But… Bitter did need to get ahead in this game, so he was going to do all the stupid side quest grinding that he needed to do (which, it seemed like, was going to be a lot). So… fashion show it was. Now, Bitter was, by no means, a fashion expert. He wasn’t up on the current trends, or what might be the trends in this so far incredibly tedious MMO. He didn’t make his own clothes - what a waste of time that would be! So… sewing and pulling something together was going to take a little thought. That being said… if anyone were to ask the Stygian, he would say he certainly had a decent sense of style. Leather, spikes, anything that looked… well, cool. That was his go to choice. And it seemed there were fabrics and accessories that would work well for that. He supposed he shouldn’t have been

He wasn’t playing this stupid game to mess around. And so far it was a stupid game. A dumb intro, ridiculously long loading times, and no real plot to hook him in. So what if it was new technology? It didn’t make a difference if the game sucked. What the Stygian really should have expected was the ridiculous sidequest. The yellow Kirin Stygian had barely set foot in the first town when the small Stygian was on him, tears sparkling in their eyes and threatening to spill over at the smallest provocation. “What?” he barked, the tone of his voice a warning that they had better not be messing around with him… and that they better not actually cry! That was the last thing he needed to deal with in this stupid game. “Th-th Treats,” the little Stygian managed, brushing the tears from her eyes before they could fall. They were shaking now - but whether that was because of the missing Treats or the attitude of Bitter standing in front of her, it was difficult to discern. “They’re… they’re….